China test-fires Missile for first time since 1980

China on Wednesday successfully launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) carrying a dummy warhead into the Pacific Ocean.

China’s ICBM launch is part of routine annual training by the People’s Liberation Army, which complies with international law.

According to the Beijing Defense Ministry, the ICMB was launched at 08:44 local time (04:44 GMT) on Wednesday and “fell into expected sea areas.”

The ministry added that the test launch was routine and part of its annual training.

What do you need to know?

China’s nuclear weapon tests usually occur domestically, and it previously test-fired ICBMs west into the Taklamakan Desert in the Xinjiang region.

A map released in Chinese newspapers indicated that the target area was approximately a circle within a ring formed by the Solomon Islands, Nauru, the Gilbert Islands, Tuvalu, Western Samoa, Fiji, and the New Hebrides.

It should be noted that the U.S. and various non-governmental organizations have reported that China is expanding its missile silos, although the exact number of missiles and nuclear warheads added to its arsenal remains unclear.

A nuclear weapons specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by the name of Ankit Panda, wrote on his X handle, “PRC statement description of this specific test as ‘routine’ and ‘annual’ seems odd given that they don’t do this sort of thing either routinely or annually.”

Similarly, Drew Thompson, a visiting research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, noted, “Timing is everything. [Available statement] claims the launch does not target any country, but there are high levels of tension between China and Japan, the Philippines, and of course perpetual tension with Taiwan.

“The launch is a powerful signal intended to intimidate everyone,”  he added.

However, John Ridge, a US-based defence analyst, said China could have conducted the test as a form of “posturing or signalling to the United States.”.

Arbiterz gathered that China’s last similar test occurred in May 1980, when an ICBM travelled 9,070 kilometres and landed in the Pacific, involving 18 Chinese naval ships.

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